Glossary · Updated Sep 2, 2026

Grounding

Anchoring a model's answers in specific, verifiable sources such as your documents, a search index, or live data.

Definition

Grounding provides the model with trusted material and instructs it to answer from that material, ideally with citations. It reduces hallucination, keeps answers current, and enables permission-aware responses in enterprise settings. Techniques include retrieval-augmented generation, web search, and structured data lookups.

Why it matters when choosing a tool

Grounded answers can be checked; ungrounded ones must be trusted. For research, support, and legal work, grounding is the feature that matters most.

Where you will meet it

AI Research & Search, AI Knowledge Management, AI Customer Support

Related terms

Retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) · Citations in AI answers · Hallucination · Knowledge base

Tools where this matters

Reviewed products in the related categories